As I’m sure you will have all seen by now, the EU blacklist was just published, you can find the final list in the conclusions that were published earlier today following the conclusion of the ECOFIN Council.

As you can tell, the EU blacklist excludes a large number of well-known tax havens, including for instance the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Jersey, and Guernsey, among many others.

A separate public ‘grey list’ has also been published today, featuring 47 other jurisdictions. This grey list includes jurisdictions which are currently not in compliance with the EU screening criteria (fair taxation, transparency, implementation of minimum anti-beps standards), but which nevertheless have made meaningful political commitments in order to introduce the relevant changes in their tax legislation in the near future.

The EU did not yet agree today on common countermeasures vis-à-vis countries that are included in the list of seventeen non-cooperative jurisdictions, though a number of potential counter-meausres that could be applied are listed in Annex III, including for instance losing access to EU funds or withholding tax measures/CFC rules. You can find the full suggested list from p. 17 onwards here. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said that possible countermeasures will be decided in the coming weeks.

Eurodad has put out a statement today following the announcement (see below).

Best wishes,
Jasper

EU attempts to divert attention from its own problems with tax haven ‘blacklist’

Tax justice campaigners today condemned an EU “blacklist” of tax havens which fails to include a single EU member state. The blacklist of 17 countries was published just a day after new findings showed a large group of EU countries have tax structures that multinationals can use to avoid taxes.

“Since the Panama Papers and recent Paradise Papers scandals, the EU has been very focused on blacklisting other countries as ‘tax havens’. However, that blacklist looks like an attempt to divert attention away from the fact that EU governments have failed to clean up their own house. The EU itself is central to the tax haven problem, and many European countries have tax structures that multinationals can use to avoid taxes – that’s deeply concerning,” said Tove Maria Ryding, tax coordinator at Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development.

“If EU governments really wanted to get rid of tax havens, they should be open about the fact that several EU Member States, such as Luxembourg, Ireland and the Netherlands, also have to fundamentally change their behaviour. Unless we put a stop to all tax havens, the problem is just going to move from one place to the other.

“The cost of corporate tax dodging is not just felt in Europe. Developing countries continue to pay a high price for a global tax system they didn’t create. Corporate tax income is a vital source of income for developing countries, who need money to fund schools and hospitals.”

“We are also concerned about the criteria used to define the blacklist. The EU has started blacklisting countries that don’t follow the OECD’s rules – but that’s very different from being a tax haven. As several EU countries have shown, you can follow the OECD’s rules and still be a tax haven – and vice versa,” said Ryding.

Yesterday, a coalition of civil society organisations published Tax Games – the Race to the Bottom which shows average global corporate tax rates will hit zero by 2052. A detailed analysis of 17 EU member states and Norway reveals the majority have either just cut their corporate tax rate, or are planning to do so in the near future.

CONTACTS

For immediate release

The Tax Justice Network has today expressed its deep frustration at the lack of effective action being taken by the EU following the publication of its so-called tax haven blacklist.

Commenting on the publication of the list, Alex Cobham, chief executive of the Tax Justice Network said:

“The EU has today missed a great opportunity to tackle the real issues lying behind the large-scale tax avoidance and tax evasion that is bleeding EU countries dry.

“Rather than have a list of tax havens based on an objective set of criteria, as originally envisaged, the list appears to be a political fix with EU members picking their least favourite countries to name and shame. The result of the flawed blacklisting process is a politically led list, that includes only the economically weak and politically unconnected.

“While EU members like the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg are the greatest procurers of global profit shifting but are excluded; and while the UK has sought to frustrate the blacklisting of its Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories at every turn, the list is hard to take seriously.

“The public has had enough of governments saying they will do better. Real action is needed. It is completely pointless to have a blacklist with no sanctions. Tax avoiders, and the countries that sponsor them will all be letting out a sigh of relief today.

“The Tax Justice Network today reiterates our call for a global convention on tax and transparency, to create a level playing field that treats all jurisdictions fairly – and provides the basis for meaningful sanctions to end tax haven behaviour once and for all.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

The EU has today published its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. The list names 17 countries. The list is available here.

A further greylist of 44 countries has also been announced. These are countries which do not meet European Standards on tax and transparency, but have committed to improve.

Research published by the Tax Justice Network on the EU list found that 41 countries should be on the blacklist according to the EU’s own criteria. That research can be found here: http://datafortaxjustice.net/paradiselost/

The Tax Justice Network estimates that more than $21tn in private assets are stashed offshore.

TJN also estimates that $500bn a year is lost to tax avoidance by multinational companies.